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Tesco retains top spot in grocery market - Kantar Worldpanel

Tesco's in-store promotions helped it to hold onto the largest share of Ireland's grocery spend in June and July

Tesco remains the biggest grocery chain in Ireland by market share, having returned to the top spot last month.

New figures from Kantar Worldpanel given the British retail giant a 22.5% share of the Irish grocery market in the 12 weeks to the middle of July. That is up 0.7 percentage points on the same period of last year.

Tesco was the only grocery retailer to grow its market share in the period, though all of the major chains enjoyed a boost in sales compared to last year.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, Supervalu had the second biggest share of the market at 21.9%, followed by Dunnes Stores with a 21.2% stake.

That compares to a respective 22% and 21.5% share a year ago.

Meanwhile both Aldi and Lidl saw their market share slip on an annual basis, with Lidl's down 0.2 percentage points to 11.9% and Aldi's down 0.1 percentage points to 11.5%.

According to Kantar sales across the entire grocery market grew by 3.1% in the 12 week period, though Tesco's sales grew at twice that rate.

Drink sales saw particular gains as shoppers bought more beer during the 2018 Fifa World Cup, while also stocking up on water during the recent heat wave.

Supervalu also posted its strongest performance since October 2016, as its stores benefited from customers returning for regular 'top-up' shops while they barbequed.

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